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One match ban confirmed for Keith

The Mayo News is reporting on Twitter this evening that Keith Higgins has received a one-match ban for the red card he picked up in last Sunday’s Connacht semi-final defeat to Galway at Salthill. Keith can, if he chooses, do a Dermo on it and request a personal hearing in front of the CHC but one assumes he’ll be content, as the saying goes, to do his bird in relation to the transgression.

Assuming this is what happens, Keith will be suspended for our Round 2 qualifier tie on 1st July, the draw for which takes place this coming Monday. Should we get over that initial qualifier hurdle the Ballyhaunis man would then be available for selection for our Round 3 fixture the week after.

By the way, this week’s Mayo News reports (here) that All-Star defender Brendan Harrison, who missed the Sligo game due to hamstring trouble, suffered a broken nose six days before the Galway game. Despite this, the Aghamore man was deemed fit to play last weekend by our medical team – and he did a good bit of jogging up and down the touchline on the day – but, surprisingly, he wasn’t pitched into the fray at any stage in the game.

In retrospect, it does seem more than a little strange for us to have had two current All-Star defenders on the bench last Sunday, with only one of them called into action and then only in the dying minutes of the game. Keith’s absence through suspension for our next outing should mean that Harry makes his first championship appearance of the year then and you’d have to hope that, regardless of who we’re drawn against and what kind of stature they have in their half-forward line, Boyler will get the nod to start in that one as well.

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48 thoughts on “One match ban confirmed for Keith”

First day out will more than likely be against a division 3 or 4 team. We could have 4 games in July. Should we use our first game out to give game time to some of the following players Hennelly, Crowe, Newcombe, Odonoghue, Nally, Kirby, Loftus, Dillon, B Moran and to rest some senior players.

Not a chance in hell of that happening tommyk, as stated previously it’s not Rochford’s style. Min changes. Keith’s suspension might be a slight blessing, assuming Harry takes his place there’s a good chance Rochford will stick with that full back line for the next round(s)(hopefully) which will allow Keith out the field or as an impact sub. Imagine Keith coming on early in 2nd half to inject pace around the middle. If we had Vaughan, coen and Andy Moran also coming on they’d be great subs to bring in.

As you say WJ, it’s a little more than bizarre that we left Harrison and Boyle on the bench last Sunday. To be fair maybe the red limited options in terms of changes but it still doesn’t really add up.

I’m also wondering about the continued presence of Dillon in the squad. He’s one of my all-time favourite Mayo plagers. A super footballer and one that I don’t think gets enough credit. But he’s been carrying serial injuries and isn’t getting any younger. He was superb for 25 mins against Teyone last year but hasn’t been fit since.

Feeling more positive than earlier in the week. I wasn’t happy with Boyle being dropped but delighted to see Coen and Vaughan in. I plan to go to Sligo v Antrim this weekend when I’m down in the yeats county, to eye up a 1 of two potential 2A apponants! Keeping positive about the journey remember ‘sometimes you have to loose the small battles to win the war’

Tommyk it’s a knockout championship game and management should start with a very strong team. If we land a ko punch early on our next opponents then I would risk a few. If those opponents are Derry then I wouldn’t be taking too many risks as our championship could easily be over. Development yes but unnecessary risk of early exit no.

The stats are very useful but I think Mayo copped what Galway were up to and adopted a different attacking style. However it would appear Galway defended better than Mayo giving away fewer scorable frees. That leads me to think we would have struggled to beat them 15 v 15 for whole game. Fair play to Galway management, did their homework 2 years running. The piece also presents a strong case for dropping SOS though I would be curious how many were conceded after he was hit. That said most of us are assuming his performance was caused by the Conroy hit when he may have recovered well. I hope this game will present huge lessons learned for the management team. I wouldn’t be quite as critical of Clarke as the piece. In this case I think stats lie a bit.
Leaving Harry off was probably wise. Broken nose could well have been re broken if the Galway lads copped. However our defensive stats might have been better with Boyler on the pitch even though I’m one who has defended giving Coen the start and could see how useful Coen was near the end competing with their taller players on Galway kickouts. Either way Keegan back to 5 seems consensus and I would agree. I think he was picked 6 for that game simply because of Walsh’s huge pace and we stopped said player doing too much damage.

Should we prevail next time out on no circumstances should Keith be held as impact sub. If there’s no room in backs give him the 10 or 12 jersey as he’s possibly our best footballer certainly with ball in hand it’s not just his runs but also kick and hand passing are very much strengths of his. Boland was decent but conservative and J Doherty didn’t make a big impact. Donie was good but Keith better suited as he will bomb in more accurate long passes.

Next day out, no I wouldn’t start Hennelly, the reason’s are two fold, Clarke has been very solid this year, if you were to evaluate all the player’s the played competitive games for Mayo, he was probably our best player. Secondly this is not the league, the first game back after a very disappointing loss of a big game that we could have won, is a real bananna skin and Clarke has more ‘evolution’ to progress with the outfield player’s in terms of restarts… I’d certainly consider Nally to start, Ditto Kirby, and Barry Moran given some game time, unlikely Barry is fit for 70mins, but think his fielding ability could give us something late on with the ‘Mark’ in play nowadays.. Louftus yes, to start probably, Dillon to finish possibly!

We should remember that Seamus O’Shea was one of our best players against Sligo and had to go off in that game after getting a heavy knock. So like Kevin McLoughlin, Seamie probably didn’t get to take part fully in training over the last few weeks. It is a bit of a worry for us though that we are so short on midfield cover that we are looking to Barry Moran to come back to give us some back-up in that area. In saying that, it would be good to see Barry back.

In relation to Alan Dillon, again we should remember that he came on against Fermanagh last year and popped over a few points to help us get over the line in that game. So until other players who come on for us, do the same thing, we might even have to turn to Alan again at some stage to pop over a few points for us, which is a bit of a worry also. Its time for other players to step up now and kick those scores for us.

An interesting comment from Lee Keegan this morning in The Irish Examiner, “I suppose, as defenders, we’d want to put a bit more pressure on the forwards to score too. We are defenders, it is our primary job to stop conceding scores.”

Bit of reality required here. Talk of 4 games in July and QF. We have one game in July. Unless the attitude is right and Rochford steps up, could be our shortest Summer for a long time. We all know we are good enough but time to knuckle down and earn our place in Croker in August.

Is it not true that should we get there we have a 50% chance of playing Connaught champions in QF as someone said earlier no stipulation on losing provincial semi finalists avoiding teams already played so no difference if that’s Galway or Ros.

If we play well which I expect we will the only team to really worry us in first game is Derry. A few of them can stay close like Sligo did but I think we improved v Galway and will evolve more. Next round after has some serious banana skins to avoid and should we prevail that we will know more about Cork and Ros though both have a chance of winning their provence. Would love a local derby but if it’s Cork or Kerry hope it’s a neutral venue. To win a QF though we would need to use a big panel in 4A as it was just hard edged experience got us through Tyrone last year. Not sure if we’d have that on Kerry. Best case scenario for 4A is we draw Ros, manage to put then away early and roll on subs as soon as possible. Other a QF will be a massive dogfight for 2nd year running. Better scenario is Gal because like last year croker experience will be an advantage.

Is Loftus good enough, is nally good enough, is kirby good enough, is drake good enough, is Irwin good enough, is newcombe good enough, , is crowe good enough, is Douglas good enough, is Gallagher good enough among others?????
We don’t know because none were given an extended run to prove themselves. If you go out to win the league then fair enough but if your only aspiration is survival then it makes no sense not to try players and build their confidence before championship. This is a failure on the part of the management that will cost us this year and next. Coupled with some of the crazy decisions made on Sunday I for one am not as optimistic as some others. 2 all stars fit to play, one got no time and the other was insulted by bringing him on in the 69th min, doc in for both throw ins, aos brought on too far out the field to have any major impact, Andy taken off just after scoring (he should only be coming on with 20mins to go anyhow), Lee wasted at 6, etc etc.
However just like it’s a mystery to us how good some of our own players are, the qualifier route is also unknown. Will the draw (hopefully draws) be kind to us or will the final nails be hammered down on this great team of ours?
As supporters we wave our flags, shout our heads off and do all we possibly can for them.
Our management need to do all they possibly can for them too, because it’s seems at times that they are just interested in finding new ways to shoot ourselves in the foot.

I listened to the ‘Gaa Hour’ earlier in the week with Wooly Parkinson and Cian Ward. They made the very very important point about the last 10 or so minutes of the match when we were chasing scores. They were generally highlighting the importance of our attacking half backs as one of our strengths. However, they noted that while the likes of Lee got on a lot of ball during those last minutes, he was well outside the Galway cover. Furthermore, and much more worringly, they made the point that it looked like the rest of the team were like a club team looking to get the ball to the county lad and expecting him to work the magic. I must say I thought as much in Salthill on Sunday. This is not acceptable for a team as experienced as Mayo and it’s interesting to consider this in the context of Leeroy’s comments above.
Granted, we were a man down and this wasn’t making the task easy, but we were clearly on top on Galway. They, in fact, were in panic mode, yet we still didn’t have the runners in support to cut through and break the line. We were well outside the Galway cover through most of that period. Lads need start to taking responsibility big time. I hope this is something that is noted and worked on over the next three weeks.

You would like to see a few new lads given a chance now in the next game. We don’t want to see what happened in Cork, happen to us. A lot of their older players, who were leaders on the team for years, all retired at the same time and left the Cork team leaderless. At least those players had the consolation of an All-Ireland medal in their back pocket, which ours don’t.

At the end of the day we butchered a two on one goal chance in the second-half against Galway and when you do that, you don’t deserve to win a game. When you think back to the goal chance that Andy Moran missed against Dublin in the drawn All-Ireland final as well, again he had Cillian O’Connor inside him, so we should have buried that chance. We really need to develop a killer instinct going forward in those type of situations.

‘ yet we still didn’t have the runners to cut through and break the line’ …..Liberal role! In retrospect it’s what has deprived us of so many major victories. Can we anticipate anything different in days to come? We know that just a few breaks could make all the difference but who is likely to be the executors? This is our last chance possibly and so we should leave no stone unturned to create a few of these match clinchers! We need to get the right players in the right place at the right time. Often we re nearly there but it’s been haphazard and at best laboured.
We work the ball up fair enough and our possession from MF has been so and so but then the anguish and heartbreak sets in. It may be due to our one dimensional mentality of feeding one or two players inside who are not pacey enough to capitalise. ITS TIME FOR HIGGINS TO BE DRAFTED FORWARD AND LOFTUS TO BE PROPERLY BLOODED to add a genuine line breaker and a vision player to a forward division that just is not functioning. How often do we have to be reminded of this and for how long do we have to suffer the same unimaginative and ineffective dabblings that have become the norm under the present regime?The answer to that question is taking form quietly just down the road….in the qualifiers!!!!

Yeah Inbetweener, I’d agree with Keith in the forwards or in a more central role at least, which he looked to be playing well on Sunday prior to his departure. Also, I’d give Kirby a proper chance, not just cameos. We’re either going to trust forwards or not, and he has showed more than enough promise in the league to be given a chance in Championship. He has the ability to pass into inside forwards as we saw on Sunday when he kicked a perfect ball into Cillian who pointed. We really do lack this throughout the team. Of course, he should have done more with the goal chance, but this is an ongoing failing of ours, I’m afraid.
Nally is another option. He can kick long scores and has the strength to break out of defence and initiate attacks. I would certainly have him ahead of Drake who doesn’t pose a scoring threat.

We need to continue to play Cillian very near to goal, just like the first 20 mins on Sunday. He looked back to his best but he drifted out a lot after that, not helped by Keith’s red. It’s up to midield and the half forwards to supply him. Remember back to 2013/14, he was lethal in close and this is where he must play for most of the match, possibly with McLoughlin playing off him. Speed of thought here is essential. We see it in dribs and drabs but it obviously needs to be far more consistent.

Last Sunday’s shot in the jaw has undoubtably left Mayo with a bit to do and has left ye a little weak kneed at a time when the hopes of so many rest perilously close to the edge of a possible abyss. I hope ye get a hard draw on Monday because this team will need something to galvanise them and get the focus back after a confidence sapping loss. A hard game and a good win is almost like a new beginning for a team of mayos experience.

Personally I would much rather to meet Galway rather than Mayo on last Sunday’s showing as I feel Mayo failed to capitalise on galway’s strangely loose back line setup. Worryingly from a Mayo perspective, some of your forwards are still more focused on putting the ball on the tee for a select couple of your top forwards than having a crack when a genuine opportunity presents itself. Regan has got a lot of grief for having a pot the last day but balls are needed as much as any other ingredient in an intercounty players skill set. In spite of the huge Higgins loss that game was there and should have been taken, it was in my opinion an opportunity lost because of several opportunities not taken. Players in a better position and with a more accurate shot must be used if they are immediately available but a chance can’t be spurned by a player trying to find them.

In 2006 Kerry were well beaten above in Cork in fact we were humiliated by the rebels and the talk was that this team is dead and buried and that jack O Connor was a dead man walking. He changed the teams set up and got the team focused on a style of play that involved aerial bombardment and quick foot passing to nippier forwards, it worked.

Point I’m making is that Mayo have the experience to build a real head of steam here and whilst they may nor have all the ingredients to totally change up their attach strategy they certainly have the strength to start getting their swagger back and dealing with the teams that are in the shark tank with them. Look what ye did to Donegal a few weeks ago when ye had no choice but to fight like dogs on their backs. If ye were meeting any of the possible teams in a quarter final ye would be wary but ye would not lack confidence and all things considered ye would probably prevail. Cork or Kerry will soon make a splash as well and either team will not want to take on Mayo at battle readiness.

I hope it’s Derry and I hope your team do not bow out of this years championship in any other field outside of Croke Park, that’s the least they deserve.
Good luck in all games but one.

It may be cleancut regarding goalie and I agree but the huge multicoloured elephant in the room is if anything happens to Clarke, the further we progress. First headline will be ‘hennelly makes first appearance since AI nightmare’. As Rochford insisted on keeping him as 2nd choice (incorrect in my opinion) he should have given him at least one league match, so the player himself could put it behind him. The way it is now there will be huge focus and attention on hennelly if he’s called on.

I think Mayo should sacrifice next years FBD and National league and devolop 2 new midfielders and 5 forwards and give them as much game time as possibly we were kind of a holy show last Sunday trying to score with a gale behind us in the last ten minutes and we couldn’t. The current crop owe us nothing and we owe them loads for some brillant days out but it’s time to freshen things up up front in particular. It will pay off in the long run even if we have to suffer a bit short term

Just thinking about the commonly held theme that if we had a Diarmuid Connolly or Paul Geaneyin our team and what a difference it would make..BUT BUT BUT when I look at Dublin and Kerry attacking their system of play means there are options left and right or the forward in possession and usually kick with some space.

Our lads are going forward and stopping, back and across, back again…slowly forward. It is not like the old days where we are generally kicking 15 or 16 wids. We never seem to have space or time to kick and often a man is left isolated with the ball and it’s overturned.

While I agree with you to a point @sam, it never seems as easy to unearth a player as it should be. The club championship is on again this weekend and that means the best footballers in the county will be on display. I would confidently wager that the top 10 scorers this weekend will not be dominated by county men and on Monday morning this blog will be hopping with lads names who racked up big scores. Some lads are happy to remain at club level, either not wanting to commit to the regime of county level or happy to remain big fish in the small pond. I would give every lad who is consistantly racking up big scores at club level the option of at least a few trial games to see if they’re interested.

Player shows well with the club and or co u21’s, he gets a call up to the co panel
He shows well in training he gets a start in the FBD
He plays well so he gets retained for the league and on into the championship
There are some doubts about the management (and the concerns come with good argument) but they should at least be given the benefit of the doubt when picking who is showing current form. They are seeing what’s happening currently in training we are not. A definitive analysis of the management can only happen when they are finished. Regardless of his shortcomings he is not a bad manager. Trying things brings risk; doing the same thing gives the same result – 2nd place. In management when we win we didn’t get everything right and when we lose we didn’t get everything wrong. The sideline is a tough place to be sometimes. As Brian Clough once said : 90% of those in the stand know more about football than I do but wouldn’t have the balls to make a decision.
There is not a forwards coach as far as I know. In fact the line breaking referred to in sportsjoe.ie is nothing that didn’t happen when cian o neill was coach. The difference now is that it’s not happening remotely often enough in the opposition half. The corofin players were coached from a young age and quite differently from the mayo players which might be Rochford’s undoing.

From my observance performance in training means bugger all. The true worth of a player is seen in actual games.
Seeing as the young players got hardly any gametime I don’t believe they’ve been fairly judged. An A v B or challenge game is not a proper game. There needs to be some competitive pressure.

JP, I don’t think the kilkenny hurlers would agree. If you are good enough it shows and a manager who is not intimidated by big names will pick the best team based on current form. Many of cody’s selections surprised people but they were based on current form in the week of the upcoming game.
However, if you are right and training in the mayo camp doesn’t matter regarding competitive pressure then maybe reaching the quarter finals is going to be a stretch. Time will tell.

I still think its the way we play that needs to be changed as much as cjanging players. If we are going to play a quick moving foot passing game then we need to mantain a full forward line as targets and distributors. As we currently play with a one man (Andy) full forward line.
Contributors argue Boland is an accurate foot passer with good vision, so why is his game limited to short handpassing?
Remember opposition teams are well aware at this stage of the forward runs of keegan and durcan. Our style of play at the moment leaves us vulnerable to a half decent team. Long sequences of short hand passing is not enough, we need more strings to our bow and going back to basics of a strong full forward line sounds good to me

I agree entirely with the point about the talent differential but the point is cody picks the team based on current form. Many times people were surprised with some selections that worked out and the view was Cody is a genius. Meantime he is genuinely surprised at peoples confusion between genius and simplicity. In the absence of knowing otherwise we have to assume Rochford is doing the same.
In the world of Cody you are only as good as your last training session. Horan has instilled this concept to the current Mayo group. It remains to be seen if it still exists. Team selection might not be the only issue.

@MayoMark
My point is Boland is not getting opportunities to exploit his kick passing skills because of limited movement in front of him.
He stood out last Jan in FBD as an exceent foot passer. But imo that part of his game has dried up due to lack of movement. His bread and butter game in salthill was basic handpass.

On the Ditch is a good place to get a good view of what’s afoot out in the field of play. If you keep doing a thing the same way you become type cast and fairly limited in your scope and your appeal and therefore your effectiveness….in any field!! It’s been mentioned that we are predictable and we know it’s true. Yet we do fairly well …we are there abouts and can continue in this groove for a long time into the future if we so desire…. there abouts ! But how can we kick ourselves out of this rut? And a rut it is.
COC is our scoring mainstay, without whom many believe we would be whistling in the dark. But would this be so? I’m not too sure at all.Recall when AOS was the Man that we could nt do without ever until he was put off up in Donegal in that league game.Cillian scores well from frees and play and approaches the player we think he is but why shouldn’t he….he’s in that part of the field where scoring is quite likely to happen….with the whole team eyeing him as the main terminal of the system…. the ball ends in Cillian’s lap! But I have a feeling that there is an inhibiting over emphasis on COC and this has stymied the movement that might emerge from this team if there was a greater balance and a broader view of how we should be going about things.Ref to the pianist who was in a Chopin competition and practised the piece till it poured out his ears. Alas he didn’t win. The adjud advised him to practice less on that piece and more on all other pieces of Chopin and other composers!
I have the ball around the middle just arrived from behind and what are my thoughts….ANDY….CILLIAN…!!!!!! CILLIAN….ANDY…!!!!! Straight away the constraints are up in my brain and my actions become somewhat stunted.That’s what happens when you find yourself saying ‘ how the f could he go and do a thing like that’?’….a stupid pass for instance…so often seen… a momentary diralection which delays a run or a tackle or a call or..you could go on all night.And what is the greatest of all the possible ills that may accrue … it is the dip in confidence …I’m not up to it quite.!!!And so at end of game we are left wondering when are we going to be visited by The Great Saviour!!!! We won’t bother naming them back the years but really were they Saviours or just good footballers who maybe didn’t knit enough with the team than they might have or they with him.Or must it always be that we re not good enough as a team and therefore there’s only one way!
So my conclusion tonight is either we haven’t got the players to do it or those we have are stunted by an impossible system which self perpetuates itself in relying too much on one player or one way of doing things rather than getting as much as pos out of all and encouraging and trying an odd bit of impro.Are we using our players as smartly as we should?Im thinking or maybe hoping that there’s more in these fellas than we are seeing.

OnTheDitch, not Bolands fault there is little movement or pace in front of him, he is always looking for the killer pass inside but if its not on then what can he do. Id rather see him retain possession than send in hopeful 50:50 balls to the ff line.

I felt Mayo were playing a patient game in 1st half and it was working. Galway had the blanket and we drew them out and fed the corners with reasonable sucess. In 2nd half we hadn’t enough forwards but found a good tactic of 1 forward Cillian getting out in front of 2 backs. The likes of Boland wasn’t risking anything close to 50 50 inside pass. If it wasn’t on then hand pass. 3 players can find a killer ball.. Kevin Mc especially and Keith and Alan Dillon. There may be others like Kirby, Cillian and possibly AOS but we often need them inside and Keegan did hit a great one for Mayo’s first point.
Our wide count was fairly low and my main criticism was just lack of killer instinct. We had 3 good goal chances wasted and another taken on by P Durcan on his left which was only a point chance. Boland also telegraphed a shot in 1st half and was blocked. If I was Mayo management I would be drilling killer instinct deep into team’s psyche and doing lots of high pressure goal drills. Re selection we fans jdon’t see training though most saying dropping Boyle was mistake, I can’t be sure as Coen needs big game experience and did fairly well. Without Donie running into forwards we were goosed as Galway had Keegan and in particular Durcan’s number. The only obvious management mistake was Drake subbed into forwards who doesn’t really give forward momentum even when in half backs. We should be grooming him for FB or CB cover though Hall will likely feature next year. Nally, Kirby and Loftus would be coming in at expense of 2 half forwards.. which 2? and Kirby’s best position is 11 currently held by DOC. To play Loftus we need to drop Andy who wins a lot of ball.
Do we drop DOC for next game? People said he was quiet but still had big work rate and scored a great point. so who would be a manager. Ye can’t win unless ye win the game.

We have the players to execute accurate foot passes but we dont have target players to ‘hit’ becuase there is no shape to our ff line.
We then have to resort to retaining possesion in the hope someone will find time and space to have a scorable chance. We were unable to create that scoring chance v Galway in the end and we will come up against better defences than Galway.
I just think we need variation in our play…

With both Cillian and Andy up front we were finding them. When Andy went off we were finding it harder and struggled to find Kirby even though he was good any time he got the ball and his passing looked good. One wide under pressure but wasn’t too far off. With Kirby inside we’d need to go mostly high. No point having AOS and Kirby inside as with 14 men we needed to win ball outfield. AOS was able to nullify O Caoráin and turn the tide in midfield. Our 2 best outfield kick passers Higgins and Mc were off the field and yet we were very close to a replay. Had McQuillan given the very blatant technical foul by Bradshaw which was in a very scorable position we would have drawn and his bigger mistakes besides were against Mayo for technically illegal hits the one against Diarmaid which was a momentum changers from front foot to back. And players get a bigger lift for getting rewarded an illegal hit than a legit one. The Galway crowd loved Comer’s hit though most of them thought it legit.
That said our double chance should have been nailed. Kirkby’s strike was good but Diarmaid would normally be more clever with his and place it the opposite direction of the defending player. Also had time to catch and kick. Cillian’s first half goal and point chances both with his left should have been nailed. Two comparable players skill wise Canavan and Gooch rarely missed of their weaker foot and Cillian has a good left. Canavan scored one of the best you’ll see in an AI final with his left.
Also I could see fatigue setting in early enough in 2nd because higher workrate needed but to credit players found 2nd and 3rd wind. Kevin Mc had obviously lost training time with rib injury and he was lively in 1st half scoring 1-1. I didn’t realise SOS had also lost training time so overall I think team did well and against weaker opposition going forward we could win by a wide margin. In our next game I fully expect the players to pull away long before the end not like last year’s stuttering back door learning curve (Kildare game excluded) I expect our performances will be at a higher standard.

Well two player on the front line is better than Andy on his own if we are talking about mixing our game between kick and hand passing.
I agree we did well against Galway in first half when Cillian for the most part played in or around his position.
There is nothing worse than the feeling it was a game we should have won and didnt. Its history now.
AOS a long way from full fitness to play midfield. And usually it takes time for him to regain full fitness. I would give him freedom to read the game and rotate between ff, cf and midfield. Bit like the Murphy role for Donegal. You slot in where you are needed most at any particular time in the game. Also AOS seems to play better from start. Took him awhile to find his feet v Galway.
Has kirby ever started at full forward or ff line for Mayo. Could be a good option for next match tho Rochford unlikely to experiment. Its important to get it right from the start and win games convincingly against weaker opposition.